Infinite Game Publishing announces that the MechWarrior Online founder's program has raised over five million dollars to support the upcoming mech MMOG, and that the game will soon enter open beta testing:

Infinite Game Publishing (IGP), Canada’s fastest-growing independent publisher of online games, and MechWarrior Online™ developer Piranha Games today announced results of its MechWarrior Online Founder’s Program: The pre-order program for MechWarrior Online achieved more than $5 million in sales since it first went on sale in July. Beginning soon, MechWarrior Online will be available for all PC gamers to play at www.mwomercs.com as it transitions into the Open Beta phase.

MechWarrior Online represents the first of three premium online games to be published worldwide by IGP, opening first in North America. Bolstered by high demand for top-quality online digital entertainment, startup publisher IGP has grown its Montreal-based headquarters to more than 50 people in the past year. It continues to recruit top industry talent as it prepares for global expansion.

Russ Bullock, president of Piranha Games, lauded the program’s success, “Working together with IGP, we maximized the value for fans participating in the MechWarrior Online Founder’s Program by offering three tiers to suit different player’s needs. Ultimately the program was a categorical success and we couldn’t be happier with the sales and important player feedback we’ve received.”

“The success of the Founder’s Program reinforces IGP’s vision to help independent developers build exceptional games with the right economic model for the global marketplace,” said Nick Foster, CEO of IGP. “We are in a unique position to be able to deliver a pipeline of high quality, innovative content for online game players.”

“The Founders are helping us fund, develop and support the game in order to deliver the best online gaming experience,” said Kelly Zmak, President of IGP. “The tremendous success of the MechWarrior Online Founder’s Program demonstrates how passionate the fans are for the MechWarrior franchise and reflect our management team understanding the rapidly changing online game industry, the fastest-growing sector of digital entertainment.”

In addition to MechWarrior Online, IGP has announced two additional free-to-play games this year which have already been labeled as white-hot brands by top industry media: MechWarrior Tactics (www.mwtactics.com) and Sins of a Dark Age (www.sinsofadarkage.com), both of which are currently in late alpha testing and will launch Open Betas later this year.

Keith wrote on Oct 17, 2012, 12:43:I don't think the game is solid or fun at this point. My take is that some are so invested in seeing a successful mech game that they are willing to dismiss obvious and glaring problems. That is just my opinion. The graphics, the 'mech set up, the maps, the teams, the weapons, everything I see needs major tweaking. There is some inherent fun in knowing you are blowing some nameless face on the other side of an internet connection up, but beyond that MO isn't even as smooth or playable as some of the most basic FPS shooters. I don't get the sense that I am in a 75+ ton machine of death, striding over the battlefield to kill and be killed. I want to feel like those missiles are going to blow some shit up, or my PPC is going to make you think twice about popping over that ridge.

Well originally all the mechs had their tabletop armor values, but people were complaining that they died quickly, so they doubled the armor values of all mechs and only did slight weapon damage tweaking. That's why missiles and PPCs feel like spitwads.

It's been a very, very long point of contention with a lot of players ever since the choice was made.

It's going to get even more complicated with Endo armor being added. I kind of pity the devs having to make the hard choices. They get a lot of hate no matter what they do.

Pushing the open beta back was a very wise decision. Unlike people that are willing to throw down money on Founder's, the open beta public aren't going to be as favorable, in general. Good word of mouth out the gate from 'the rest of the world' would do this game wonders in the long term.